The Coup’s Pam the Funkstress Dead at 51

The DJ also worked with Prince near the end of his life as his personal DJ, Purple Pam

Pam the Funkstress and Boots Riley photo by Anthony Pidgeon/Redferns

Pam the Funkstress, member of the Oakland-founded hip-hop group the Coup, has died following organ failure, as the San Francisco Chronicle and Bay Area radio station KBLX report. The DJ, born Pam Warren, had been reportedly hospitalized for over a month following organ transplant surgery. She was 51. Warren joined the Coup in the early 1990s, providing scratches to their debut album Kill My Landlord. The last Coup album that she was extensively involved with was 2006’s Pick a Bigger Weapon.

In addition to her work with the Coup, Warren was recruited by the late Prince to be his touring DJ near the end of his life. Dubbed “Purple Pam” by the Purple One, they began working together in February 2016, only months before his passing.

On December 29, the Coup’s Boots Riley shared a heartfelt tribute remembering his late friend and collaborator. In the lengthy Facebook post, he recounts his most beloved memories of Pam—including stories of the night they met, when she DJ-ed Tupac’s album release party, and their final interaction in the summer. He concludes the note by writing:

Pam, you are fucking amazing, you altered my life in so many wonderful ways, and I wish I had a way to show love to you, to sit back and enjoy you, more than I did. But maybe that’s it. That’s just the way we interacted with each other.